Vacuum cleaner



Sept. 30, 1941. J. L. RAY

VACUUM'CLEANER Filed Dec. 30, 1939 Patented Sept. 30, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFF-ICE 2.251.574 I ippuauzz m xxo. 311,359

4 Claims.

The present invention relates in general to improvements in the art of utilizing air currents 'to remove foreign matter such as dust from fabric and other objects, and relates more specificalis simple and compact in construction, and which is also highly efilcient in operation.

While the ordinary portable vacuum cleaner is quite effective in removing loose dust particles from various objects to which the suction nozzle is applied, it is a well established fact that these ordinary cleaners will not readily dislodge and remove firmly embedded and tightly adhering dirt particles, fragments of thread, lint, or the like. In attempting to improve the effectiveness of such devices, many modifications in nozzle structure and attachments have heretofore been proposed, including the use of brushes, beaters, and mechanism for creating a pulsating flow at the nozzle inlet. While the brushes and beaters do aid in removing some of the foreign matter other than loose dust particles, they obstruct the suction passage and requireadditional power I for operation thereof, and therefore necessitate provision of a larger fan and propelling motor with resultant objectionable increase in weight and cost. The addition of these brushes and beaters also introduces undesirable complication in structure, and requires frequent removal and replacement of driving belts; and these appliances are more or less destructive to the articles being cleaned, and in case of brushes, the attachments themselves wear out rather quickly and require frequent replacement if satisfactory operating conditions are to be maintained. The prior attempts at introducing a pulsating flow in the suction nozzle have been extremely ob- -jectionable, because these devices intermittent- 1y interrupt the fiow of mixed air and foreign particles into and through the final dust collecting bag or other receptacle, thus also producing a pulsating action during final air separatlon and causing objectionable escape of dust particles with the liberated air. All of the prior attempts and appliances for improving the effectiveness of these vacuum cleaners have therefore been objectionable for diverse reasons, and primarily because they lacked simplicity and effectlveness.

It is therefore a more specific object of my present invention to provide simpleand most effective instrumentalities for producing a pulsating intake flow at the cleaner nozzle of a vacuum cleaner, while maintaining an approximately continuous flow of -mixed air and foreign particles to the storage receptacle.

Another specific object of this invention is to provide a new and simplified nozzle assemblage for suction cleaners, which will most effectively dislodge and remove embedded and adhering foreign particles, without danger of damaging the articles being cleaned and with the expenditure of minimum power.

A further specific object of the present invention is to provide an improved portable vacuum cleaner unit of the motor driven fan type and having a dust collecting bag mounted thereon, in which the objects being cleaned are automatically subjected to a rapidly pulsating shaking action while the flow of liberated air from the collecting receptacle is maintained relatively steady and devoid of excessive pulsation.

Still another specific object of my invention is to provide an improved suction cleaner assemblage for most eilectively dislodging foreign matterfrom fabrics by a combined suction and vibratory action, and which is simple and durable in construction making it unnecessary to eflect frequent inspections, adjustments or replacement and other articles being cleaned, and which canbe readily applied at moderate cost either to new or old vacuum cleaner units or installations.

These and other specific objects and advantages of my invention will be apparent from the following detailed description.

Fig. 1 is a central longitudinal vertical section through a. fragment of a portable vacuum cleaner having one of my improved suction nozzles and flow pulsators applied thereto, the nozzle having a central longitudinal partition therein;

Fig.2 is a transverse section through the assemblage of-Fig. 1, taken along the irregularline Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragment of the nozzle section shown in Fig. l, depicting the action thereof on an ordinary rug;

Fig. 4 is a central longitudinal vertical section through a fragment of another portable vacuum cleaner having a modified type of my improved suction nozzle applied thereto, the modified nozzle having a transverse partition therein;

Fig. 5 is a transverse section through the asportable household. vacuum cleaner equipped with an electric motor driven suction fan, it is not my desire or intent to unnecessarily restrict the scope or-utility of the improvement by virtue of such specific embodiment.

Referring to Figs. 1 to a inclusive of the drawing, the improved portable vacuum cleaner shown therein comprises in general, an electric motor I transportable upon a roller 9 and having a transporting handle l swingably suspended from its housing; a suction fan adapted to be direct driven by the motor I at relatively high speed and having a concentric driving wheel |2 at the overhanging end of its driving shaft, the fan rotor being housedwithin a casing ll having an axial inlet and a tangential discharge ll communicating with an air permeable'dust' receptacle or bag I! suspended from the handle in; a nozzle member or casing l6 secured to the fan housing casing l3 and having an air delivery opening H at one end in open communication with the axial fan inlet, and a suction nozzle II at its opposite end provided with a central partition ill. the medial portion of the casing ll forming an enlarged chamber and being trans-- portably supported on a roller 20; and a rotary drum valve 2| rotatably supported upon a stub shaft 22 secured to a closure cover 23 for the casing IS, the valve 2| having a friction driving ring 24 cooperable with the fan wheel l2 and being cooperable with the partition l8 to alternately connect the suction passages on opposite sides thereof with the outlet opening II.

The motor 8, handle it, fan ll, casing I! and bag it are all of relatively old and well known construction, except that the fan rotor has the driving wheel |2 associated therewith, and while this wheel is shown as having frictional driving engagement-with the rubber or'cther resilient valve driving ring 24, this friction drive may obviously be replaced by a positive gear drive. The

the interior of the valve 2| is always in opeii communication. At the time that the valve opening II is in communication with either'of the es 2., ll alone, the entire flow of mixed air and dust entering the nozzle II, will pass through the communicating passage, and the other passage will have practically no flow of air therethrough: but-whenthe valve opening II is however produce a whipping or shaking action on the portion of the rug l2 exposed to the nozzle II at the lower end of each passage 29, 20, and as illustrated in Fig. 3, the rug portion thus exposed will be alternately elevated from the floor 32 and permitted to drop thereby pro ducing a pulsating or vibratory action which effectively shakes the rug fibres and structure and permits the passing'air to thoroughly pick nozzle casing l6 while being of special construction, is preferably adapted for attachment to a standard fan casing I! with the aid of removable screws 25; and the closure cap or cover 23 which rotatably supports the valve 2| may be held in place by means of thumb nuts 26 and provides means for effecting ready removal of the valve 2|. The end ofthe valve supporting shaft 22 remote from the cover 22-, may be provided with a conical head 21 as shown,'and the partition I! has an'alined top section 28 which'cooperates with the main lower'sectionto divide the nozzle into two segregated passages 29, 30 which'are alternately communicable with the valve interior through a rectangular lateral valve opening 3|. While only one partition i9 forming two segregated passages 29, 3| has been shown, it is obvious that more than one partition forming more than two passages may be utilized if so desired, and the width and length of each passage may be ,varied'throughout a considerable range.

During normal operation 'of the vacuum cleaner specifically shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the motor 8 may, be placed in operation in the usual manner to rotate the fan II at relatively high speed; and the entire assemblage may be transported over a rug 32 or other object to be cleaned,

with the aid of the manipulating handle "I; As

. the fan revolvesQthe rotating wheel l2 coacts with the valve driving ring 2land thereby also causes the valve 2| to revolve about the shaft 22 at somewhat slower speed. The optimum speed for the valve is best determined by experiment and depends on the sizes of fan passages, and of the dust receptacle. During this rotation of the valve 21, the lateral opening 3| revolves about the axis of-the shaft 22 and alternately connects the nozzle passages, 30 on opposite sides of the partitions ll, 28 with the axial inlet of'the fan through the opening H with which up and remove all foreign matter. While the valve 2| is in fact revolving somewhat slower than the Ian M, the pulsation or vibration thus produced is quite rapid, but the flow of mixed air and foreign-matter'from the fan to the bag I! is steady and substantially devoid of pulsation or vibration due to the nozzle action.

In the embodiment of the invention shown in Figs. l to 3 inclusiv the passages 29,30 will obviously cause wavesor undulations in the rug 22, which travel across the path of advancement of the nozzle it, but these rug undulations may be caused to travel in the direction of advancement of the cleaner by forming the nozzle structure in the manner illustrated in Figs. 4 to 6 inclusive. In the modified assemblage, the motor Lian fan housing ll, handle lli and bag II may be the same as previously described, but the nozzle casing I. has a somewhat wider nozzle II which is segregated by atransverse partitition l9 into separated passages 29', 30*. The drum valve 2| of the modified structure is rotatably supported upon a stub shaft 22 carried by a closurecover 23, and is adapted to be revolved by a fan driven wheel l2 coacting with a driving ring 24 aspreviously described, but the lateral valve opening II in developed condition is formed as an oblique angled parallelogram, rather than as a rectangle as in the case of the opening II. This formation of the opening II will produce somewhat smoother transition of the opening from one passage 29', 20' to the other, and in the modification several horizontal partitions 22, 34, and central vertical'partitions 35, 26 are formed within the casingit' and cooperate with the lower transverse partition I! to form the irregular passages 29', 30' leading from the nozzle inlet to the valvechamber.

normal operation of the modified type of nozzle illustrated in Figs. 4 to 6 inclusive, the portable unit may again be transported over a rug 32 or other article to becleaned, and when the motor and fan are operating, the passages 28', '30 will be alternately connected with the suction side of the fan II by the revolving valve 2|, and will be intermittently disconnected from the fan so as to produce the desired pulsating action in these passages. This pulsation of the fiow in the passages 29, 30' will cause the portion of the rug 32 which is exposed to the noz zle inlet orifice, to be shaken or whipped by an undulating or wave action as depicted in dotand-dash and solid lines in Fig. 6. This rapid and violent agitation of the rug and its fibres quickly loosens and dislodges the dirt particles and threads so that the foreign matter will be most eilectively removed by the air currents. It is to be noted, that while the modified structure produces a pulsating flow through thenozzle passages, the flow from the fan II to the bag is practically steady and of constant volume.

From the foregoing detailed description it will be apparent that my present invention provides an improved vacuum cleaner assemblage which besides being simple and compact in construction, is highly eflicient and most effective in operation. The improved assemblage actually possesses all of the advantages of the brush and beater types of attachments, without requiring increased power for operation of the unit, and the pulsating action which facilitates removal of dirt and threads does not noticeably affect the delivery of mixed air and dirt particles to the air permeable bag I5, nor does it affect the final discharge of separated air from the bag. Because of this fact the dust and foreign matter are permitted to accumulate within the bag ii in a relatively quiescent state, and no objectionable quantities of dust will be returned to the ambient atmosphere through the permeable walls of the collecting receptacle. Since the volume 0! air withdrawn by the fan through the nozzle is always maintained constant, and since only approximately one-half of the nozzle orifice is effective at any given time, the power required to drive the fan II will obviously be maintained constant and at minimum value. sating valve is normally thoroughly confined within the nozzle casing, this valve may be readily removed for inspection and cleaning, and the valve assemblage will seldom require replacement of parts although it may be necessary to replace the rubber driving'ring in order to maintain a suitable driving connection with the fan wheel l2. The improved assemblage can obviously be manufactured at a moderate cost and the improved nozzles may be readily applied to standard vacuum cleaner motors and fans, and the device has ,proven highly satisfactory and most effective in actual commercial use. It has been found that the improved nozzle and valve structure will remove dirt particles which cannot be removed with the ordinary vacuum cleaner and that the intermittent flow through the nozzle passages creates a vibration which quickly removes fibres such as threads from rugs and other fabrics.

It should be apparent that the lengths and the areas of the various passages and chambers should be properly proportioned so as to give the best possible results, and it may in some cases be desirable to divide the nozzle into more passages than shown in the drawing, by providing additional partitions. This increase in the number of passages for a nozzle of the same size will obviously increase the velocity of the air pulsations, and various types of valves other than the rotary drum type shown herein may be utilized to produce the pulsating flow while maintaining steady delivery of mixture from the fan; By providing While the pulthumb nuts 26 for effecting rapid removal of the valve and closure plate 23, these parts may be conlimit the invention to the exact details of construction shown and described herein, for various other modifications within the scope of the claims may occur to persons skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. A vacuum cleaner comprising, a rotary fan for creating a constant flow of air and having a direct driven co-axial pulley at its inlet end, a

nozzle for delivering dust laden air to said fan and being divided 'into segregated inlet sections, an annular hollow valve interposed between said nozzle and fan and being rotatable about-an axis approximately parallel to the fan axis to produce alternating pulsating flows of air into the several inlet nozzle sections, and an annular driving member carried by said valve near the periphery thereof and frictionally engaging said fan pulley to provide a direct frictional driving connection between said fan and valve.

2. A vacuum cleaner comprising, a rotary fan for creating a constant flow 01' air and having a direct driven co-axial pulley at its inlet end, a nozzle for delivering dust laden air to said fan and being divided into segregated inletsections, an annular hollow valve interposed between said nozzle and fan and being rotatable about an axis approximately parallel to the'fan axis to produce alternating pulsating flows of air into the several inlet nozzle sections, said valve having a peripheral inlet port alternately communicable with said nozzle sections and an axial discharge in constant open communication with said fan through said annular valve, and an annular driv-' ing member carried by said valve near the periphery thereof and frictionally engaging said fan pulley to provide a direct frictional driving connection between said fan and valve.

3. A vacuum cleaner comprising, a rotary fan having a direotdriven coaxial friction element near its inlet end, a nozzle for delivering air to said fan and having segregated inlet sections, an

annular hollow valve interposed between said nozzle and fan and being rotatable about an axis approximately parallel to the fan axis to alternately connect said nozzle sections with the fan inlet, and an annular driving member carried by the peripheral portion of said valve and engaging said element to provide a direct frictional driving connection between said fan and valve.

4. A vacuum cleaner comprising, a rotary fan having a direct driven coaxial friction element near its inlet end, a nozzle for delivering air to said fan and having segregated inlet sections, a hollow cylindrical valve interposed between said nozzle and fan and being rotatable about an axis approximately parallel to the fan axis to alternately connect said nozzle sections with the fan inlet, and an annular driving member carried by and within said valve and engaging the periphery of said element to provide a direct frictional driving connection between said. fan and valve.

I JAMES L. RAY. 

